Inline queries

Switch supports inline queries. This means that you can send a query to a bot and receive a list of results from it. This is useful for things like searching for a specific item in a database, or getting a list of results from an API.

Inline query basics

Every time a user types @botname in a chat, the bot will receive an inline_query event. This event contains the query string and the context of where the user is using the inline query.

The bot can send a response to the user's inline query. This response is a list of results. Each result can be an article, a photo, a video or document.

Please refer to the InlineQueryAnswer class for more information about the available inline query result types.

Inline query example

Here is an example of how to handle an inline query:

import logging
import json
from typing import Tuple
from swibots import Client, BotContext, MessageEvent, Message, InlineQuery, InlineQueryEvent, RestClient, RestResponse, JSONDict, NetworkError, InlineQueryResultArticle, InputMessageContent

logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)

log = logging.getLogger(__name__)

restclient = RestClient()

def parse_response(response: Tuple[int, bytes]) -> RestResponse[JSONDict]:
    decoded_s = response[1].decode("utf-8", "replace")
    try:
        jsonObject = json.loads(decoded_s)
    except ValueError as exc:
        jsonObject = decoded_s

    response = RestResponse(jsonObject, response[0], {})
    if response.is_error:
        raise NetworkError(response.error_message)
    return response


TOKEN = "your_token"

app = Client(TOKEN, "This is an inline query bot")

@app.on_message()
async def on_message(ctx: BotContext[MessageEvent]):
    message: Message = ctx.event.message
    log.info(f"Message: {message.message}")
    await message.reply_text(f"Echo: {message.message}")


@app.on_inline_query()
async def on_inline_query(ctx: BotContext[InlineQueryEvent]):
    query: InlineQuery = ctx.event.query
    log.info(f"Inline query: {query.query}")
    await query.answer(f"Searching results for {query.query}...")
    url = f"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=opensearch&format=json&search={query.query}&limit=50"
    response = parse_response(await restclient.get(url))
    if response.status_code == 200:
        data = response.data
        results = []
        for i in range(len(data[1])):
            results.append(
                InlineQueryResultArticle(
                    id=str(i),
                    title=data[1][i],
                    description=data[1][i],
                    input_message=InputMessageContent(data[2][i]),
                    article_url=data[3][i],
                    thumb_url=
                    "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/1200px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png",
                    thumb_width=48,
                    thumb_height=48,
                )
            )
        await query.answer(results)
    else:
        await query.answer("There was an error while searching for results.")


app.run()